About Us

The WaterWealth Project is a non-partisan, citizen-driven initiative that works to amplify the voices of local community members who love the place in which they live, the nature around them, and the waters that sustain them. We are a diverse mix of local residents, including teachers, business owners, fishers, farmers and doctors. We are mothers, fathers, aunts, uncles, children and grandparents. Based in Chilliwack, BC, our work ranges from community issues to provincial and national water policy.

Our goal is 100% community control over decisions affecting our local home waters. We recognize that long term solutions to the protection of fresh water – and the benefits that we all enjoy from our water wealth – can only be achieved with a recognition of First Nations rights and title. We work for local communities to have the power to say 'yes' or 'no' to decisions that affect the wealth of their water.

We believe that water is precious, and that ordinary people can protect it. We believe that our wealth is in our water. Many local people – especially in the agriculture, fishing and tourism sectors - depend on water for their livelihoods. But our waters give us more than financial revenue. Water wealth is also about the physical, spiritual, cultural and ecological prosperity that water makes possible. All living things depend on healthy water. Our land, food and life-support systems are all powered by fresh clean flowing water.

But right now, the protection of our shared home waters faces grave challenges. Industrial developments such as heavy oil pipelines, agricultural pollution and large-scale gravel mining can all put the waters we depend on at risk.

The WaterWealth Project is about taking a fresh approach to economic-well-being, one that respects the needs of all living beings and provides the foundation for healthy, thriving communities. We recognize that the actions of today drive the outcomes of tomorrow. Unless ordinary people work together to protect their water now, the future will be uncertain.